Did you know that there’s an agency who decides what the color trends are going to be several years in advance?

It’s called the Color Marketing Group, the leading international association of color professionals.

What does this mean to you? If you have an online (or offline) business that has anything to do with colors, you’ll definitely want to be aware of what colors are in style for the current year.

For example, Web design firms, Webmasters, clothing stores, department stores, advertising agencies, SEO/SEM companies, marketing companies, interior decorators, wallpaper and paint companies, etc., need to be aware of what colors are “in” for the current year.

So what are the hot color trends for 2008?

According to the Color Marketing Group, here are your colors for 2008:

1. Green and all colors of nature

2. Blues that remind us of the sky and water as well as a navy that’s so dark it’s almost black

3. Coppery, bronze-y tones of metallic

4. Ethnic accent colors like Moroccan reds, sunny golden yellow, and turquoise.

For more detail, read the entire article at:

http://www.colormarketing.org/Media.aspx?id=784&

Be sure to visit the Color Marketing Group every year to learn what colors are hot for the current year.

Robin

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If you have a site that sells clothing, you may think that having pictures of the clothes with a brief description of them is enough content for your site.

Wrong.

What about adding content on what constitutes the latest styles for this particular season?

What about tips for accessorizing for this season? Are scarves in? What type of pants are in style? Cuffs or not?

What about accessorizing each outfit with jewelry, shoes, etc.? You may make more sales if you do.

What colors are in style this season?

You could create content focused on different body shapes. For larger people, what tips would you offer?

What about creating an interactive area where your potential buyers could match tops with pants and add jewelry, shoes, etc., to the mix to see how it looks as a complete outfit? Let your buyers get creative with their own outfits.

With the idea above, you could even have a ”wish list” area where your buyers could save their clothes, then direct family members to the area for gift ideas.

You could set up greeting cards for family members/friends to send out when they purchase clothes as gifts.

What about setting up an expert Q&A on your site, so that your visitors could send in questions and a fashion expert could answer them. Post a new question each week on the main page of your site.

Consider creating a newsletter that offers style tips, what’s “hot” in the clothing industry this season, and other items of interest to your buyers. Offer a discount once in a while. Encourage your potential customers to sign up and list their birthdays. On their birthday, offer a nice discount as a gift.

Any other ideas?

Robin 

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What is a “walk through”?

Let’s say that you’re a real estate agent, and you’re trying to think of different types of content to add to your Web site.

Consider walk throughs.

Remember that in order to make the sale, you’ll have to find out the likes and dislikes of the female part of the buyer equation (if there is one), because her approval will more than likely make or break the sale. (http://www.searchengineworkshops.com/articles/largest-audiences.html)

To give you a little tip, what do women look for when buying a house? What about a walk through of the master bathroom, the walk-in closets, unique areas that will grab their attention such as a shoe closet, or a glimpse of the roomy kitchen?

What types of walk throughs am I talking about?

You could certainly do video walk throughs, which are quite effective. Or, you could have a slide show and use text to describe what the visitor is seeing.

What other online businesses could benefit from walk throughs?

Vacation property

Hotels

Bed and breakfasts

Museums

What about hunting or fishing retreats/camps? Wouldn’t that be a great selling point for an avid hunter . . . to see a walk through of the terrain he’s going to be traveling through if he chooses to go on that particular hunt?

What about spas and other retreats? Let your potential customers feel the relaxation all the way through your Web site as they view the pictures, watch the movies, or read the content.

Get creative here. You could even have walk throughs of antique stores. Try a walk through of an antique book store. How enticing would that be? Wow . . .

Robin

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Mary Bowling from Blizzard Internet has written an excellent whitepaper called, “Make Your WordPress Blog Search Engine Friendly.”

You can find the whitepaper referenced on Sphinn:

http://sphinn.com/story/28775

In the whitepaper section of Blizzard Internet Marketing, you’ll feel like you hit the lottery with all of the phenomenal whitepapers you can download. This SEO/SEM company is really up on their game.

Robin Nobles

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Many people believe that visitors don’t read the contents of a Web page.

Wrong.

Buyers read content if it’s written and laid out properly on a page.  

Try these simple tips and see if they work for you.

1. 1. Avoid long paragraphs that few people will take time to read. Short paragraphs that people can skim will work much better.
2. 2. Use numerical or bulleted lists.
3. 3. Try bolding certain words to make your content easy to read.
4. 4. Use mini headings to separate the content into sections.
5. 5. Start with an introductory paragraph that draws the reader in and end with a closing paragraph that ties up all loose ends.
6. 6. Focus on the benefits of your products and services to your buyers.
7. 7. Don’t use images gratuituously. White space is your friend.
8. 8. Keep your word count to around 400-600 words per HTML page. You need enough words to accurately describe your product, service, or company.
9. 9. Keep everything on the page focused on one topic. Move other topics to another page.
10. 10. Pull your readers into your content by describing your products and services using the five senses. Give your readers a sense of how they would feel when they use the product, as opposed to making the experience totally impersonal.

Take time with your content and don’t just toss it on a page, and you’ll help to increase your conversion rates.

Write content that flows, and it will “float” (or flow) to the top of the engines. Think in terms of LSI (Latent Semantic Indexing), or well-rounded content, and use supporting words as you write your content. The power of LSI is astounding.

Good luck!

Robin 

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